UnorthoDOTs

2024 for DOT Brew's beers began with a tap takeover at UnderDog and three brand new offerings. 

A bold move to start: Micro Oak Fruit Thingy, reflecting the brewery's commitment to established beer styles and the perfection thereof. It's 2.4% ABV, which is brave, but suffers from no thinness, the sweet fruit refusing to ferment and giving it the necessary body. I thought I detected favourite DOT ingredient verjus at work here: that tangy lime-esque sourness, but Shane says it's too expensive, so instead it's simply grapes, hitting against whatever sour culture they've used. I got a hint of pink flavour too: spotting the raspberry and not being surprised to learn that there's strawberry too, and then and happy tannic dryness on the finish. That makes it deliciously drinkable and refreshing, aided by a light and almost cask-like sparkle. I spent a lot of time drinking and exploring a pint of it when really it's built for quaffing. We're off to a good start.

The next one is a base blend of pale lager and a light sour beer which is then aged in former white port barrels, and badged as BA White Port Blend when it comes out. The base is quite immaterial as the barrels are firmly in control of the taste, adding lots of smooth, old oak and the good kind of oxidation you get in white port and pale sherry. It's all a bit much at first, accentuated by the substantial 6.6% ABV. White port is an excellent aperitif but I would be inclined to save this beer for dessert. There's a little bonus sweetness in the finish with the arrival of concentrated red grape, more ruby port than white. Either way, I think you absolutely need to be a fan of port before considering this beer. I am, and rather enjoyed it as a result.

The next one is extreme even by DOT's regularly way-out standards. Almost all of The Chairman's Cut has been exported to Italy, saving the one 20 litre keg tapped up in UnderDog. The headline feature is that it's a 22% ABV barley wine so was being served in very small snifters. It's a murky russet colour and that alcohol is extremely apparent from the aroma, where I could almost feel my nose hairs singe on sniffing it. Among the barrels used for ageing it was peated whiskey, and for me that absolutely dominated proceedings. It smelled of real fried bacon and tasted of bacon flavouring at a remove, most specifically of Bacon Fries corn snacks, with the same sort of dry wheatiness underlying the savoury, meaty foretaste. The booze isn't as prominent as I had expected from the aroma and I class the whole thing as smooth, warm and mature rather than rough or hot. The small measure was plenty, however: the density and the intense peat suggest that it could gum up the palate very quickly. Fun for one, but not something I need to see in regular production.

So DOT is still doing things the uniquely DOT way. Expect more of the unusual, as usual.